Avalanche
by TromellaGavin
Summary: T&T case 3-5: What if Phoenix Wright had crossed Dusky Bridge before the lightning strike? Would he get involved in the fight? Would he try to save Maya? Would he learn the true identity of the murderer? And most importantly: Who would defend Iris?
1. Prologue

_Author's Notes: I posted this because it's one year after I posted my first fic. This is the Prologue, so that's why it's in italics. _

_In order to clear up any possible confusion, I changed the time of the lightning strike to about 10:00. Sorry for not sticking with the actual timeline of case 3-5… but… this was the only way I could make this fic work. Sorry...  
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_ Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended._

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* * *

Date: February 7th_

_Time: 9:30 PM_

_Place: Hazakura Temple. _

_It was cold._

_It was dark._

_For the hundredth time, Phoenix Wright wondered what he had been thinking when he had left the comfort in his room to venture out into the below freezing weather. Ok, so his guest room at Hazakura Temple wasn't exactly what could be described as 'comfortable', but now that he was knee deep in ice cold snow, he would give an arm and a leg to be back there._

_But he was almost to the bridge._

_He couldn't go back now. _

_**"Don't blame me if you become one with those you channel!"**_

_Those words were the ones that had caused him to wake up in the first place. Sister Bikini's words had continued to ring in his ears as he jumped out of bed and rushed outside, leaving his coat behind._

_He regretted that now._

_He tramped through the snow, wondering if he could make it across the bridge before the channeling started. He was blind due to the fog and falling snow that wouldn't allow him to see more than a few feet ahead. The only things he saw were the mental pictures of Maya... locked inside the sacred cavern for hours on end. She would speak the spell she had to chant 30,000 times through chattering teeth... her lips would turn blue..._

_He shook the thoughts from his head. He _would_ get to the Inner Temple in time to talk Maya out of this idea. He mentally cursed himself for being so stupid. All he had thought about when he arrived here was the dark haired nun... the one that reminded him so much of Dah-... her. He hadn't stopped to even think about the dangers of the training Maya would be put though. Maya... who was barely even an adult yet...Maya... who..._

_"Maya... oh... Mystic Maya...."_

_Yeah. Her._

_"How could I be so... so... stupid..."_

_...?_

_Was he hearing voices now?_

_"I have to... have to watch out for M-Mystic M-Maya. But... the lights out b-bell... mother... ten o' clock... the... the incinerator... oh, but M-Miss Deuxnim will get so worried. Maybe I-I shouldn't... Mystic Maya w-wouldn't want me to...to...to... oh! Mr. Nick!"_

_The 'voices' inside his head turned out to be coming from Pearl Fey, talking to herself. _

"_P-Pearls?!?!" He stammered, teeth chattering. "What… Y-you shouldn't be here…"_

_She looked up at him with wide, frightened eyes. _

"_Mystic Maya."_

_She said it so simply. As though it was the obvious answer to his unspoken question. _

_Without another word, he took the small girl's hand and they headed across Dusky Bridge._

_***CRACK!***_

_No sooner had they safely crossed the bridge and were about to enter the inner temple than they heard a sound louder than any sound they had ever heard before. Immediately afterwards the coldness in the air vanished and they felt… heat. It was so warm… blazing. They could almost… _hear_ the heat. No… not the heat… they were hearing the sound of something crackling… something burning…something like…_

_Flames._

_They turned around, fearing the worst._

_And the worst was, unfortunately, what they got._

_Dusky Bridge was on fire._

_And they were on the other side._


	2. Treasured

**Date: February 7****th**

**Time: 9:23**

**Place: Hazakura Temple Gate**

Pearl had felt guilty before. Extremely guilty. Like… like when she had shattered Mystic Ami's sacred urn. Or when she was only 4 years old and had stolen Mystic Maya's magatama… then lost it. But the guilt she had felt those times was nothing compared to the guilt she felt now.

She was standing outside the Hazakura Temple Gate, shivering. The cold air blew inside her ears loudly, causing both pain and loss of hearing. The wind couldn't seem to make up it's mind on which direction to blow; one minute it was hitting her hard in the face, the next blowing her forward. It was currently blowing the snow on the ground up into her face, blinding her. The cold air had caused her fingers to become numb; she couldn't even feel the pot of gravy she now held in her hands. She stood knee deep in the snow wearing only her usual training outfit, devoid of all her senses. She closed her eyes and stumbled through the snow, practically pushing the pot of gravy ahead of her. Though she couldn't see anything ahead of her through her tightly closed eyelids, she could see her mother's letter perfectly in her mind. Every stroke, every line, every curve she had memorized so that she could easily do what she was doing now. She repeated the instructions over and over in her head… even the parts she didn't understand… like what gravy had to do with anything, or why the letter itself was such a huge secret. After all… if it was going to benefit the entire Fey clan in the end, wouldn't it be better for everyone to know the plan? But most confusing of all was the name on the letter and the photo attached to it…

Dahlia Hawthorne.

The name meant nothing to her, of course. She had never heard it before in her life. It was the picture that was bothering her. It hadn't meant anything to her before she had arrived at Hazakura Temple. But… not long after she arrived and looked at the picture again… something seemed odd about it. Familiar even.

She couldn't understand why.

Eventually, repeating the contents of the letter could no longer distract her, and the guilt overcame her once more. As she began her journey towards Dusky Bridge, she was once again reminded of those other times when she had been a bad girl. The first time she had broken the urn… and the second time. And when she had finally found Mystic Maya's lost magatama 2 years later… broken. Mystic Maya or Mr. Nick had consoled her those times. They were just _things_, they had said. Things could be put back together, and even if they couldn't, it wasn't like the world would end.

But Mystic Maya was not a _thing_. If something happened to Mystic Maya inside the Inner Temple… something bad… she wouldn't be able to be pieced back together. She was Pearl's best friend… practically the sister she never had. And, to her, the world _would_ end if something happened to Maya during that training.

Because, despite what anyone would try to tell her, it would be her fault.

She was jolted out of her train of thought when she was suddenly thrown back into the snow, gasping in pain and shock from a sudden sharp pain in her right shoulder. With some difficulty she sat up, confused, shaking snow from her hair, causing it to fall out of its usual pretzel-shaped twist. Unable to see where she had been going, she had somehow wandered into the courtyard.

After checking to make sure she still had the pot of gravy by her side, Pearl looked up to see what had hit her, only to be greeted by a crack of lightning above her. The next thing she knew, she was on her back again, staring up at the statue of Mystic Ami.

Another flash of lightning.

The sky lit up above her, and in the light she could see blood glistening off of one of the seven 'branches' of the Shichishito. The branches curved off of the sword like crescent moons, each one coming to a sharp point at the end. Maybe it was just the fact that it was nighttime, or that the lighting was causing Mystic Ami to glow earily every time it struck… which was often... but the Shichishito suddenly looked more dangerous than ever before. Scary, almost. As though it was just waiting… waiting to be used to for its true purpose… to be used as a weapon…

Pearl shook her head to try to remove the thought from her mind. She shouldn't be thinking of the treasured Kurain heirloom as a… as a _weapon_. She blamed all those crime scene investigations with Mr. Nick.

She grabbed the top of the gravy pot to try to pull herself up, crying out in pain from the wound in her shoulder. She bit her frozen lip to try to fight against it, her tears turning into icicles on her face. She was on a mission… a mission given to her by her mother. She couldn't fail. She had to be strong.

"_You have been continuing to train, I assume, Mystic Pearl?"_

"_Of course, mother… every day, just like you told me to!"_

"_Perfect…"_

_They were at the detention center… not exactly where most 9-year old girls would want to go in order to talk to their mothers, Pearl Fey included. It had been over a year since that… incident that had started with Mystic Maya's channeling for that Grey man and ended with the police leading her mother and that Ini… er, Mimi… woman out in handcuffs. She had come to visit her mother many times since then, and she was used to it by now. But… talking to her now was different than it used to be. Now there was a sheet of glass between them. And behind that sheet of glass… Morgan was hiding. She never looked Pearl in the eyes anymore. She never asked how she was… or what she had been up to. It was always about spiritual training- whether she had been training, and whether Mystic Maya still showed an interest in becoming Master. The answer to both was always yes. Morgan would then stare off into space, sipping her drink, which was for some reason allowed in prison, and that would be the end of their conversation. Pearl knew she was hiding something. In fact, she had stopped wearing her magatama to their visits after the first few times. It made it difficult to talk to her mother when she had five red locks covering her heart…_

_She was doing it again, staring off into space. Pearl sighed. Her mother hadn't been the same since that case. She stood up, about to leave, when…_

"_Mystic Pearl… your spiritual powers are indeed much greater than the powers of other children your age. You have… exceeded my expectations."_

_Pearl sat back down, blushing at the praise._

"_However, I do not believe that your full potential is being reached through the training methods of Kurain. Or Mystic Maya's for that matter. She is… _planning_ on becoming Master at some point, is she not?"_

_Pearl nodded, not noticing the intended emphasis on the word 'planning'. She had never really felt as though her 'full potential' was not being reached, and Mystic Maya had never mentioned that either. Then again, her mother _was_ much older and wiser than they were. She was probably right. After all, Mystic Maya was going to become the Master any day now, and Pearl still had a long way to go before her spiritual powers were as strong as her cousin's. _

"_I know of one place…" Morgan continued, "… up in the mountains. It is very cold up there… perfect for training. Hazakura, I believe the name is. Your spiritual power will be enhanced by only one night there… or so I've heard."_

_Pearl's eyes widened. "You really think we should go there?" she asked, leaning forward so that her nose practically touched the glass._

_Morgan nodded. "I think you should. It would be for the good of the whole Fey clan if you both attended."_

_Pearl smiled. Her mother was so thoughtful… why didn't any of these police people realize that? She shouldn't be in a scary place like this…_

"_One more thing…" Morgan said, once again staring off into the distance. "I hid a letter for you to find at Kurain Village in my room… I have no doubt that you will have any trouble finding it."_

"_A letter? What's in it?" Pearl leaned back, confused. _

"_Some instructions for you to follow if you decide to go to Hazakura Temple. A… relation of yours died not too long ago. She had a plan that would benefit the Fey clan… but, unfortunately, she died before these plans could be carried out…" Morgan looked down sadly, sipping from her mug. _

_Pearl jumped up._

"_D-don't worry, Mother!" she smiled reassuringly. "I'll find the letter and follow the instructions perfectly!"_

_Morgan smiled back, looking her daughter in the eyes._

"_I know you will."_

Her thoughts were brought back to the present when she heard her name being called.

"Pearl? Are you out here?"

Elise Deauxnim.

Pearl scrambled to her feet, panicking. If Miss Deauxnim saw her out here she would never let her cross the bridge, and then she wouldn't be able to check on Mystic Maya before Sister Iris rang the lights out bell! She ran, as fast as she possibly could in the snow while lugging a pot of gravy, to the gate and watched as Miss Deauxnim traveled ahead of her towards Dusky Bridge. She was moving quickly, practically running, most likely due to the freezing cold temperature. Pearl followed, staying as silent as possible.

Due to the fact that she was only 4 feet tall, wearing nothing but her training clothing, and dragging a pot of gravy behind her, Pearl lost sight of Miss Deauxnim quickly, which she supposed was for the better. If she could only see Mystic Maya before she was spotted by anyone…

"P-Pearls?"

Pearl jumped, instantly stepping in front of the gravy pot, hiding it from view. She doubted that he would be able to spot it. She probably just looked like a shadow to him… that's all he looked like to her anyways. She wouldn't have known who it was if he hadn't spoken.

"Oh! Mr. Nick!" She hadn't realized that she had been talking to herself… that must have been what made him notice her.

Then realization hit her.

Mr. Nick was out here… headed towards Dusky Bridge. He was worried about Mystic Maya too! It was all so romantic! Maybe he would let her come with him so that she could-

"Y-you shouldn't be here…"

Or not.

She looked up at him, wide eyed, hoping that he would be able to see her through the darkness.

"Mystic Maya," she said simply. And that was all it took. He stepped forward and took her frozen hand in his, and they began their journey across Dusky Bridge, leaving the pot of gravy behind. She could always come back for it.

She crossed the bridge faster than Mr. Nick. He seemed to have some sort of fear of heights… or maybe it was rickety old bridges. As soon as she saw the Inner Temple she sped up, heading towards it, forgetting completely about the instructions she had promised to follow.

***CRACK!***

And with that sound, all thoughts of Mystic Maya disappeared as well.

Mr. Nick stood in front of her, staring in shock at the scene before them. Dusky Bridge was up in flames. She had never seen so much fire her life, and her first instinct was to run as far away from it as possible. But Mr. Nick was still up there, dangerously close to the flames. She ran up next to him, tugging on his sleeve. He didn't even notice her. He was staring at the bridge, with an unreadable expression on his face.

_***Dong! Dong! Dong!***_

The lights-out bell rang loudly and clearly through the air, and could even be heard over the cackling fire.

It was time.

The pot of gravy was still on the other side of the… currently unusable… bridge, but the letter hadn't said specifically that the "gravy roasting" had to take place at 10:00… just the channeling.

She took a step back from where Mr. Nick was standing and prepared to run away and complete the channeling before he noticed. But first…

She turned to face the burning bridge, and tossed her mother's letter into the darkness before her, the wind blowing it into the flames, where it instantly turned to ash.

"… _**Gravely roast the Master in the fires of Hades and bring our vengeance to fruition…"**_


End file.
